THE grey-haired man in the red England shirt punched the air and cheered as David Beckham’s free kick secured his team’s place in today’s World Cup quarter-final.

Watching on television in his flat in Bremen, Martin Rooney was almost as happy about the goal as his “nephew” Wayne on the pitch in Stuttgart.

It was ideal material for the camera crew for ARD, Germany’s public broadcaster, and neatly fitted the “ . . . and finally” slot on the evening news.

Except for one slight flaw.

The case of Wayne Rooney’s long lost relative is not so much one of the uncle he never knew, as the uncle who never was. “To be quite frank, it’s a pile of absolute bollocks,” a family source told The Times. “We’ve never heard of this bloke.”

And the reporter who covered the story for Radio Bremen admitted that he had been conned. “I don’t know why he made this joke,” Boris Poscharsky said. “Maybe it is a typical British joke. He is a very funny guy.”

But this may not be the first time that the football-mad Dr Rooney, 58, has played the German media for fools. A decade ago, when Wayne Rooney was still unknown, his namesake was interviewed in the local press about the European Championship semi-final between England and Germany at Wembley.

Speaking to the Weser Kurier newspaper, Dr Rooney recalled being at Wembley for the 1966 World Cup final after being given match tickets as a present for doing well in his A levels.

The same newspaper interviewed him in May this year, when he first claimed to be the England striker’s uncle. He said: “Wayne has Irish fore- fathers and that’s where he gets his temper from. He was always a bit crazy, but he’s a fantastic footballer. I always told him he could be one of the greats if he kept injury-free.”

Dr Rooney has become a minor celebrity in Germany, and has given several newspaper, radio and television interviews; but none of the reporters wondered about the gaping hole in his story. Why, if he was, as he claimed, the brother of the footballer’s mother, Jeanette, did he have the surname Rooney and not her maiden name, Morrey?

The mystery “uncle” is in fact a Mancunian who says that he played as goalkeeper for Salford Boys in his youth and idolised Bert Trautmann, the German star who played in goal for Manchester City. Inspired by his boyhood hero, Dr Rooney studied German and in the 1970s moved to Bremen, Trautmann’s home town, where he undertook a doctorate. He married a local woman but they are now separated and he lives alone, earning a living as a translator and freelance writer.

Despite his claim to fame, Dr Rooney was refusing to return telephone calls yesterday and did not answer the door at his flat. “He loves football and he is always wearing his England shirt with the name Rooney on the back,” one of his neighbours said.

Herr Poscharsky said that after being contacted by British reporters he rang Dr Rooney.

He said: “I asked him how it is possible that he does not have the name of Wayne’s mother and he said it was a difficult family affair and he didn’t want to talk about it. So I asked him if he was sure he was Wayne’s uncle and he said, ‘Yes, I’m sure’, then he hung up.”

England’s star player is equally sure, however, that he has no Uncle Martin from Bremen. His spokesman said: “This man is no relation whatsoever and Wayne has never met him. It is a mark of Wayne’s global celebrity that people are queueing up to be associated with him.”

Media hoaxes

1983 The Sunday Times published the fraudulent “Hitler diaries”

1996 The Sun apologised over a picture purporting to be of Princess Diana and her lover James Hewitt cavorting at Highgrove

2004 Daily Mirror published pictures of British soldiers apparently abusing Iraqi prisoners

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